The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

...So Sail Instead

Starlight stepped out of the engine room, Maple having asked her to explore and let her know how the ship was doing. The ship was intact at first glance, though absolutely everything that hadn't been bolted down was overturned or worse: the library was a mess of open books and bent pages, and the comfortable reading chairs mostly lay on their sides. Frowning slightly, Starlight pulsed her horn and tipped the chairs back upright, straightening and closing a few of the books. Actually reshelving them would be a task for Shinespark.

Rain drummed hard on the deck above. Whatever mystical properties of the ship's energy had held the weather at bay before, they weren't active now that Maple was only keeping the power going. The boat rocked as well, but from her limited nautical experience, Starlight didn't think it was anything to worry about. Still, she pushed open her own room, remembering to shut the window Maple had opened.

The floor was slightly wet from rain already, and Starlight paused to open a closet, pull out a generously-provided towel, and mop it up. She should have been worried about seeing to other ponies before cleaning, but somehow couldn't bring herself to hurry. The large shard of mirror Maple had propped on their bedside table had fallen and had another crack; Starlight righted that as well, wondering if there was such a thing as a crack-mending spell.

"Starlight? What were those idiots at the controls doing?" a disgruntled filly's voice said behind her, and she turned to see Jamjars, balanced on three hooves with the fourth held to her belly and a green tint on her face. "Don't they know to... ugh... give some warning before doing air stunts?"

Starlight's ears pricked, then folded. "Jamjars! ...Are you seasick?"

"I am not seasick!" Jamjars moaned indignantly, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm daydreams-interrupted-by-falling sick! You try thinking about nice things right after breakfast, then suddenly tumbling head over heels in midair and... urk! Just tell whoever had this bright idea to come see me so I can show them just how unhappy my stomach feels in person, and then have them clean my room. And the bathroom is mine."

"Okay." Starlight blinked as she unceremoniously left, making a mental note to avoid Jamjars' room at all costs and reminding herself that other ponies didn't have nearly as much experience being in free-fall as she did. Though this hardly counted next to toppling off a waterfall or exploding dam, and there was no wind in her face and...

Gerardo, Slipstream and Valey. Right, she should be checking on the others... Someone might be downstairs, but she had a feeling everyone who was able would have gone to the bridge. Carefully, she stepped that way as well, dodging fallen books and making sure to keep her hoofing on the rocking floor.

She made it all the way to the deck door at the top of the staircase before remembering that it was raining outside and she'd have to go through that to reach the bridge. Who designed a ship like that? There should at least have been a ladder to the engine room... Frowning, Starlight weighed the costs to her horn of teleportation, trying to shield herself with crystal, and just skipping magic and getting wet, and eventually settled for the crystal. Armoring herself was a spell she needed to work on, anyway.

Encased in a teal block that started at her head and covered her entire body, leaving only her legs free since multiple pieces was too much work, Starlight staggered out onto the deck. She didn't have enough seafaring experience to tell if the waves were high, low or normal, though they swelled nearly twice her height and were bolstered by crashing rain. The wind wasn't terrible, but it was blowing hard enough that it caught her bulky crystal like a sail, and...!

Starlight's mouth was covered, so she couldn't squeak in dismay as the water-slicked deck and wind conspired together to capsize her unbalanced mass. She fell sideways, landing on the deck and rocking back and forth in an undignified manner. Her exposed legs were quickly soaked, and with an internal sigh of resignation, she realized it was impossible to get herself back upright without dropping her shield. The crystal vanished, leaving one of her sides pressed against the wet floor and the other drilled into by rain from the heavens, and by the time she righted herself and scrambled to the bridge, she was far more drenched than she would have been had she ran across in the first place.

"Starlight!" A chorus of voices greeted her as she stepped inside, so wet that even her cheek fur drooped. Shinespark, Gerardo and Slipstream were all there, and the griffon in particular's expression was bright. "It is good to see you well," he assured her. "Well... mostly well, it appears."

"I want a towel," Starlight said, the puddle forming around her spreading halfway across the floor.

Shinespark's aura grabbed her and rubbed her roughly, covering every bit of her body and wringing the water from her fur like a lilac squeegee. "That ought to help, first," Shinespark remarked. "I think there are towels in... here?" She tried a cabinet, then a second and third, and finally found what she was looking for. "Here. Need help?"

"I think I've got it?" Starlight threw one towel down on the floor so she wouldn't be standing in a puddle, and it instantly became soaked through. She tried levitating the second one, but her horn told her it would take a few more days of recovery first if she didn't want to blow her odds of using magic freely once they got to the empire. The tree's aid was still there, but as long as her horn beneath it wasn't in peak condition... "Never mind. I need help."

Slipstream took the towel and held it up, allowing Starlight to much more easily rub her face and mane against it. "Jamjars is seasick," she muttered as she dried herself. "And wants someone to clean her room. Maple's in the engine room. Where's Valey?"

Shinespark shrugged. "Not my biggest concern. Valey disappeared somewhere an hour or two ago to talk with Amber on the sound stone, so she's probably hiding in the cargo hold or something. She can detect danger, so she'll be fine."

Gerardo tapped a talon. "I wonder why she didn't warn us we were bound for trouble..."

Everyone glanced at him, and Shinespark shook her head. "Maybe it doesn't work like that? I don't know how Valey works. I'm sure she should be fine."

"Those are precisely the sort of words one would expect to hear in a jinx," Gerardo announced, straightening up. "I, for one, am going to look for her just to be safe."

He made it all the way to the door and flung it open before pausing, realizing it was still raining outside... and hung his crest. "On second thought, is there a tremendously important reason why one must walk through the rain to access the rest of this vessel?"

"That's what I want to know," Starlight muttered, towling off her chest, sides and back.

"Oh! Here." Shinespark leaned over, flipped a lever, and with a rattle, a section of roof outside the bridge extended, until a short, covered area linked the two doors. "We figured we'd be flying over storms most of the time, so it wasn't the hugest priority..."

"This will, at least somewhat, have to do," Gerardo mused, his talons still tickled by rain blown past the extendable roof by the wind.

Once he was gone, Slipstream sighed. "As I was saying, it's a good thing this boat is a water boat, too. And that we were only a few days from the Empire when this happened. I think, at least... There are no landmarks, so it's so hard to tell exactly how far east we are. I'm afraid I don't know anything about piloting sea ships, though..."

"That's why it's good to learn." Shinespark gripped the wheel intently, altering their course slightly to the left. "I think I'm going to take us further north. In this visibility, it wouldn't be smart to get too close to the mountain wall."

Starlight shrugged. It sounded like they were going to talk plans and navigation, which meant it was her turn to head back to Maple.